The present disclosure relates to a function setting control system including an image forming apparatus and a mobile terminal device capable of communicating with the image forming apparatus, and to the image forming apparatus. In particular, the present disclosure relates to technology for displaying a plurality of setting items for controlling functions and setting contents corresponding to the setting items on a mobile terminal device.
Conventionally, image forming apparatuses referred to as multifunction machines are known which are capable of executing a plurality of functions including a copier function, a scanner function, and a facsimile function. Some known image forming apparatuses are equipped with a function to communicate with a mobile terminal device such as a smartphone.
For example, a mobile terminal is known which receives, from a multifunction machine connected so as to be capable of communication, a list of functions executable by the multifunction machine and which displays a user interface screen used to input attribute information corresponding to the respective functions. The mobile terminal transmits each function inputted by an operation performed on the user interface screen and attribute information that corresponds to the function to the multifunction machine. The multifunction machine receives each function and attribute information that corresponds to the function which are transmitted from the mobile terminal. In addition, the multifunction machine executes each function based on each received function and attribute information that corresponds to the function.
In addition, for example, an image forming apparatus is known which is provided with hierarchically-developing setting input screens used to input various conditions for forming an image such as the number of copies to be printed and darkness. The image forming apparatus includes a setting confirmation screen that displays a list of conditions inputted using each setting input screen and values of the conditions. By pressing a setting confirmation key on an operation panel, a transition can be made from each setting input screen to the setting confirmation screen.
With the mobile terminal and the multifunction machine described above, at the mobile terminal, a user can input setting contents that respectively correspond to a plurality of setting items for controlling functions. However, confirming inputted setting contents requires that a complicated operation be performed involving redisplaying, for each setting content, an operation screen for inputting the setting content. In addition, at the image forming apparatus, in order to confirm an already-inputted setting content when a plurality of setting contents are being inputted, the user must stop displaying an operation screen for inputting the setting content and switch to displaying a screen that displays a list of the setting contents. In other words, a complicated operation involving switching between screen displays must be performed.
An object of the present disclosure is to enable a user to readily confirm setting contents corresponding to a plurality of setting items for controlling functions in a function setting control system which includes an image forming apparatus and a mobile terminal device capable of communicating with the image forming apparatus.